In Scotland!

I know I said I was going to post my observations on the Chorale's blog but I decided some of them are too personal to be of general interest so I'm posting here after all.

Yesterday (Friday) I got up at 5 a.m. after about 4 hours of sleep (bleah) and Amy came to get me at 6 and took me to the airport. A very long dull series of flights (our flight attendant on the PDX --> PHL flight was a hoot though!) and our group arrived in Glasgow at 9 a.m. this morning, got to the hotel and eventually got to check in. Took a shower and changed (wow, did that feel good!). Then we went on a brief bus tour of Glasgow and got to see the (Presbyterian) Cathedral. Of course it was originally a Catholic cathedral; but unlike so many others (the Nieuw Kirk in Amsterdam comes to mind) it wasn't entirely gutted/looted during the RevoltReformation. It still made me sad though in the way that all the lost treasures of our Catholic forebears makes me sad. It was beautiful. We sang "The Glory of the Father" in the main church and "Good News" in the crypt.

After that I rested a bit, then went to the vigil Mass at the (Catholic) Cathedral. It was nice but a little sad. The Church in Scotland doesn't seem particularly strong. The music was, unfortunately, schlocky American music for the most part, with no cantor and a really loud organ (but hey, it was a Saturday vigil, not Sunday a.m., and in the summer to boot). It included such favorites (not!) as "Seek Ye First", "On Eagles' Wings" and "Be Not Afraid". Bleah. But the priest (a missionary priest from South Africa) was terrific. Attendance was light and the people's responses timid. Strangely enough, after communion we knelt for the final prayer, blessing and dismissal -- how odd.

I had some time to walk around downtown in the afternoon; there were a lot of people walking around (a lot!) and it was cool. There are a lot of beautiful women in Glasgow! Wow!

I keep working on my Scottish accent, it's getting pretty good :-) but I worry I will use it in front of a Scot and offend him! It's too cute though.

The weather was cool earlier but has turned cold and rainy... and it's almost July. Sheesh!

I've been up for about 31 hours straight now so I am going to get ready for bed. We are leaving at 9 tomorrow for Inverness!

Tour Blog!

One of my fellow Chorale members has set up a blog for our tour... so I will blog all my tour stuff over there. Check it out here!